Notes from the injury circus

*Stuart Smalley stares into the mirror...*

"Today is a new day. Today I am taking a new approach. Today I will look at the New York Islanders Hockey Club L.P.'s interpretation of the NHL's injury disclosure policy not as fuel for frustration, but as fodder for entertainment. Because darn it, this season has some fun in store. New coach and new prospects. No reason to let Big Brother's paranoia ruin it."

For those who are tired of this subject, I apologize for repeatedly harping on it. (In on-ice news, it's looking increasingly likely that old friends Miro Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko will draw the plum assignment of flanking Sidney Crosby.) But honestly, this injury reporting circus is just starting to get entertaining. Consider:

- The Isles, already with 7 NHL one-way contracts on the blueline, pick up another off waivers from the Rangers
- Two of them, Chris Campoli and Andy Sutton, are known to have injuries "below the head" and have not seen the ice in days
- The Islanders circulated a copy of the NHL injury disclosure policy to reporters, in a petty display of "So nyah."
- The only paper that covers them regularly, Newsday, has increased its reporter presence during preseason -- counter to industry trend -- meaning there are that many more bodies digging for info AND meaning the club is welcoming this additional coverage with a big "It's none of your business." Ha!
- Meanwhile, former PR head Chris Botta, mutually parted at the end of last season, is invited back to cover the team via blog with a veteran insider's perspective. Which means every time he shows up around the building(s), there are how many old friends and former colleagues willing to share a bit of info here and there?
- Amid all this, whoever is calling the shots on this issue (Garth "keep it in the family" Snow?) thinks it is both a good idea and feasible to hide injury information.

That, my friends, is how you cook up a recipe where in one corner, Botta is breaking the news that Sutton actually had surgery on his hand -- Botta suspects out for six weeks -- and Campoli's "good" shoulder is being re-evaluated. In another corner, Newsday's Greg Logan -- who broached the Isles' injury info dysfunction at multiple times last season -- considers this information and suspects (because what else can he do, given the tight lips?) that the announcement of first-round pick Josh Bailey's contract today may be in part timed to counteract the bad injury news.

But what injury news? The club doesn't disclose injury news, because it doesn't have to! ("Nyah nyah. Pthppt!") On that note, Logan also squeezed out of a club spokesman that the club "may have an announcement in the next day or two about its injured players."

We wait in joyful hope.

Islanders have a breakout!

Compared with last season, the Islanders are coming out of their own end far more decisively on the breakout almost as if they have a definite plan.

-Greg Logan's report in Newsday

Music to the ears! While the Islanders don't have Hall of Fame-caliber QBs on the blueline, they do have several guys who are beyond competent handling the puck. Apparently, they added a new one in their intrarivalry shot-across-the-bow waiver claim of Thomas Pock. It's nice to see Scott Gordon encouraging them to move the puck smartly.

Another of those puckhandlers, Chris Campoli, is out for ... um, some undefinable "good period of time." It's still preseason, and already it feels like a circus regarding the NHL's brilliant new injury nondisclosure policy.

Carrying this bizarro world further into the unreal, Chris Botta informs us that players have been told not to talk about their injuries, period [under the 11:30 entry of that post]. It's like carrying a politician's communications strategy into the locker room: "Chris, what's that wrap on your shoulder for?" >> I've never said I have a wrap on my shoulder, so I categorically deny that my shoulder is an issue. "So you'll be back in the lineup tomorrow?" >> I'll be back in the lineup at an appropriate time, and when that time comes, you'll be told.

I understand some fans don't see what the big deal is -- "why do we need to know about their injuries, anyway? It only provides other teams a competitive advantage." If you agree with that, please feel free to comment. I understand that every fan comes at this sport, this league, with different interests in mind (e.g. fighting, Canadian teams, goaltending, etc.). Personally, I view information about what I'm watching as part of the product package that the league gouges me for.

The league could also strip the names and numbers off of every player uniform -- "why help your opponent know who's on the ice? It only gives them a competitive advantage." But somehow, that bit of information helps customers like me better enjoy -- and buy more of -- the game.

Splintered Blades, 9-26-08

Back to on-ice hockey now, with some assorted this and thats:

1. Mike of Islesblogger.com has a look at where the blueline offense will come from under Scott Gordon's system. Included is a note about offense from unexpected places, plus -- do we have an Islesblogger Guarantee?! -- a forecast for DOUBLE the goals from the Islander blueline. Given the way Gordon seems to be a guy with a suddenly much better toolbox to play with at the NHL level (as if he's thinking, "Wow, ALL of my guys can make and receive passes!"), I have hope that Islesblogger's projection comes true.

2. Greg Logan updates on Friday's light day in Islanders camp. Gordon says Yann Denis wasn't at fault in the 4-0 loss to Philadelphia. And Logan, if I've read it right, has narrowed the picture on Jeff Tambellini's injury from "below the neck" to now "lower body." Which I assume means below the waist (hey, HEY, keep it clean here). Grief. Should be a fun season, injury-wise. In other news, I'm a fan of a team who finished in the "lower half" of the 30 teams last year. I also root for a team "east of the Rockies." On the next Islanders fan survey I get, I'm telling them I see "between 1 and 80 games per year." (Sorry to belabor the point.)

3. Islanders360 hits on two points I fervently agree with: 1) We missed Jon Sim last year more than we -- and league-wide pundits -- realized; 2) If Gordon's scheme produces more shots, the Isles will still need to bump up their shooting/finishing percentage. We'll need some pure sniping; shots that truly "beat" an already-set goalie rather than just shots that get by based on positioning and traffic. I actually think Mike Sillinger is one of the guys who's capable of sniping shots past the goalie, but his hip rehab worries me terribly.

4. Finally, a nice feature on Kyle Okposo at NHL.com. Most huff-and-puff rec players -- except those who think someone, somewhere robbed them of their rightful spot in the NHL -- marvel at the steep upgrade in speed and skill that accompanies each ascending level of hockey. There are guys in my league/pick-up games who amaze me, and it's both humbling and awing to think that they couldn't hold a water bottle at the lowest semi-pro minor league. To that end, the feature on Kyle Okposo includes this quote, a nice bit of insight for any fan but particularly for the huff-and-puffers [italics are my emphasis]:

"It helped a lot (playing in the AHL first)," he said. "If I had come straight from college to the NHL it would have been a bit of a tougher adjustment. The guys are so much bigger and stronger up in the NHL, and the game is even more controlled, which is unbelievable. That's the most unbelievable thing I found, defensemen are just so much smarter up there, smarter with their sticks. They don't do as much but they feel like they're covering more ground, so playing in the AHL helped me a lot."

I like that italicized point. Economy of movement -- including maintaining a position that is psychologically threatening to the forward -- is one of those traits of grade-A defensemen that is harder to observe and impossible to capture in stats. It's not just about covering a forward; it's about making a forward think he's covered when you don't have him and, conversely, making him think he's free when you actually have him funneled right into your domain.

Okposo also says some good stuff about the difference between the college schedule and the pro schedule, something for us to keep in mind during his first mid-season slump.

NHL injury policy is a scam, period.

*sigh* Again with the injuries.

I've vented about this before, but now it appears it will become a topic recurring again and again and again. The blight of injury misinformation has somehow, defying all logic, become an NHL league-wide policy.

When I saw the note buried in Gerg Logan's notes about the Isles' non-disclosure on Chris Campoli's shoulder, I thought, "Here we go again." I also immediately wondered how former Isles PR head and now quasi-independent blogger, Chris Botta, would respond. Botta is (granted, I've never met him, but from all accounts he is) a PR man in the classic sense of "truth and communication is always the best strategy." But no strategic communicator has been closer to both sides of this issue than Botta was: Knowing info is good for fan/media relations on one hand, but knowing the NHL old guard and many players -- i.e. his employers and the players whose cooperation he needed to do his job -- would rather keep it all "in the room."

Fortunately for Isles fans, Botta is outraged. And he sums the issue plain and simple: "When it comes to injuries, a balance between protecting your players and informing your fans can certainly be struck." Hopefully Botta beats the drum far and wide.

This is such a no-brainer, I honestly hate writing about it. I hate to get all hyperbolic about it, but it is insanely unjustifiable, and it's an example of the type of insular thinking that makes the NHL a media punching bag. It's the kind of thing that needs to be set forcefully at the central office, so the GMs stop worry about the tiny competitive edge they could get by hiding injury information like news at the Kremlin. But I don't see the league changing unless they realize fans -- not just reporters, the stereotypical bogeymen -- don't like it, either. So I'll be tacky and quote myself here rather than recreating all my thoughts:

In one way my interest in this sport is dependent on having a decent amount of info with which to assess what I’m watching. Just like I want to know if one team I’m watching has twice the payroll as its opponent, I also want to know if my top scorer has had shoulder surgery: Maybe that will lead me to cut him slack, maybe it will lead me to say retire the old bum. That’s my right as a fan ... Likewise, I want to know if my franchise ‘keeper on a 15-year deal has had surgery on both hips and a knee in years 1 and 2 of his deal. [New edit: Or a freaking concussion!] Etc., etc.

That influences my assessment of the roster, my evaluation of the goaltending, my opinion of what kind of back-up goalie we need. [Edit: To say nothing of implications for fantasy players, another revenue source.] And as long as the league is publicizing the draft, publicizing free agency, and publicizing the players — make no mistake, those are all part of the PR picture to build fan interest and buy-in of the product — then they owe paying customers that kind of communication.

NHL leaders will likely tell themselves, "See, these diehard fans keep writing and coming to games regardless of our injury policy. Revenue is grand." Fine. For the short term. But the NHL is a niche league with strained credibility in many areas. A league that needs to think long-term to ensure growth (i.e. North American popularity). And here is a gift-wrapped opportunity to be a leader: to be a league that plays it straight with fans, that is as fan-friendly as its mythically down-to-earth players. But the GMs, in their short-sighted nature, have screwed that up.

If they want to pass up that opportunity, if they want to inch closer to the unreality of pro wrestling, if they want to widen the disconnect between players and fans ("Is he hurt, or does he just suck?" and "Why do they boo me when I'm doing my best on one leg?"), if they want to give us another reason to question why we bother paying escalating prices when there are other hobbies and diversions in this multichannel world, that's their decision. And their long-term loss.